Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Chai Spice Cake

I'm a bit of a, erm, bibliophile. Just how huge of a geek am I ? One of my favourite things to do is to scrutinise a cookbook's bibliography (and it's shocking how many don't have one). I find it's very often, especially in the case of a book or author you trust, an excellent source for "leads" - smart potential cookbook buys. Like I said, geeky.

I finally made the Chai Spice Cake from the book, a recipe I had flagged some time ago for it sounded utterly delectable, using as it does brewed chai tea and headily scented with warm spices - good spice cake recipes are hard to come by, and this one promised to be both moist and moreish. Like all the very best sort of recipes, it's a template that invites tinkering - as the recipe suggests, in place of the chai tea, you could use a favourite spiced orange-flavoured tea blend. In addition to tea, you could heighten the zesty dimension with a few drops of Boyajian orange oil, which can be ordered from here (another site I can spend hours trawling). For an extra gingery kick, the tea could be steeped in hot gingerale.The fabulous tea that occasioned the recipe was Gryphon Tea Company's Straits Chai , silken sachets of a delicately balanced blend of Sumatran black tea and spices. If the packaging looks familiar, it's because you saw the gorgeous picture that accompanied this post. Chubby Hubby and his lovely wife S had passed me the tea to try; suffice to say I am hooked.

I'm a big believer in grinding whole spices as needed in small quantities, especially if used as a flavour accent in baking - it makes all the difference between insipid and inspiring. Grinding serves to release the volatile oils of a spice, all of which are extremely sensitive to light, heat and moisture, thus explaining the often pallid bottled dust that passes off as ground spice - it's had ample time to sit around and deterioriate. This pulverization is easily done in an electric spice/coffee mill or mortar and pestle kept specifically for the purpose, although some larger spices (such as dried ginger or whole nutmeg) are best dealt with by grating with an implement such as a Microplane.

The original recipe calls for ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and mace; I added some ground cardamon seeds to echo the flavour of the tea. When it comes to cardamon, it's best to buy as whole, plump green pods - the white ones have been bleached of colour at the expense of flavour. Also, ready ground cardamon typically includes the hulls, a cost and labour saving measure if ever there was one. The inconvenience of podding then grinding as needed is a small price to pay for the smokily exotic flavour of pure, unadulterated cardamon - distinctive yet mellow, citrusy yet floral, with an effusive camphor-like inflection. Used judiciously - a little goes a very long way - it lends nuanced, bittersweet depth to all manner of spiced cakes, pastries and breads (those of Scandinavia come particularly to mind).

The weather recently has been downright depressing, oppressively muggy on a good day, thunderstorming otherwise. If nothing else, it's conducive for staying in and checking out a new recipe or two. Both in the making and the eating, the Chai Spice Cake provided exactly the sort of comfort I find myself craving. And in the baking, the perfumed plumes that waft and linger are so exquisite as to rival that of the most precious incense.

I couldn't resist busting out a recent addition to my burgeoning cake pan collection and adapting the baking times for the recipe accordingly. It's a baby-Bundt number from Nordic Ware, the folks behind the original Bundt pan. The Garland Pan features 2 one-cup versions respectively of the signature Fleur de Lis, Bavaria and Cathedral shapes - brilliant for creating miniature tea cakes that are beautiful to look at even when unadorned. The cast aluminum bakeware possesses a heft and solid feel that make it a thing of substance in every regard - the material and heat reflective exterior promote even baking and uniform browning, producing cakes with finely hewn detailing, while the nonstick interior ensures easy release. Excuse me if I sound like a total groupie here - I've lost count of the number of times I've ruined an otherwise perfectly mixed cake batter by using a cheap flimsy pan, which I've consequently sworn off. Sure, it's a quantity-quality trade-off, but just as once you've experienced that very first pair of life-changing Jimmys or Louboutins, there really is no recourse but to kick that hitherto cheap-and-cheerful habit.

Ooo, I do that too! wow, I finally found my long lost sister!! ;) haha, just kiddin!these look absolutely AMAZING, I love it! the pictures, the spices, the cake forms, the tea...you've got me craving =)

I've seen these molds in shops like Crate & Barrel I believe, but have recently been in such a silicone craze I couldn't imagine buying something in cast aluminum, imagining it would be very hard to unmold the cakes. But you seem to have succeeded very well! They're beautiful, architectural, crisp. Bravo!

chai means tea... so do you mean you have made a tea spiced cake? calling something chai tea is the equivalent of calling it tea tea which makes you sound like twat. GET IT RIGHT PEOPLE!!! the correct terms would be chai masala ... masala referring to the mix of spiced used in chai (tea)

Your blog is one of the few I check out daily and wait impatiently to see a new entry. Your creations and story-telling is amazing. These cakes look extra delicious. I'll definitely try them. Thanks for sharing all the links to cake pans as well.

Any recipe that includes all the spices you mention, immediately moves to the top of my list of must-makes. I agree that grinding whole spices is the only way to go in instances like this. Adorable little pans, and you're not a geek! Bibliographies in cookbooks (Nigella always does a brilliant job with this) are such a great source of information!

Hi J, those are some seriously gorgeous cakes! I've seen those pans from Nordicware, but somehow I could never imagine what the finished cakes would look like - I certainly didn't expect something this delicate and beautiful. And I agree with you about the bibliographies (though I disagree that it's geeky!) - I wish every cookbook had them, though of course if they did... I'd probably have twice as many books :)

As for the person who has nothing better to do than roam the internet looking for misuses of the word 'chai', it's as pointless as it would be to criticize the angophone use of 'latte' to refer to a coffee drink. Language is like that! The funniest example of that I've ever run across, actually, was in Spain where bodysuits (aka leotards) have been shortened to contain the first element only, resulting in my host mother once asking me "do you have a body"?

What beautiful little cakes Jocelyn, and they sound delicious! I've seen that pan before and been seriously tempted. It is only a lack of space in my kitchen (well actually, in my house) that has prevented me from snapping one up.

I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to see and read this post. I couldn't agree with you more about Marcy Goldman and her cookboos (and site). And I too am a fan of the orange oil you purchased. I use a drop of it when I make granola, which I usually make in large batches.